<u>Other causes the Crusaders began to fight for included</u>: fighting against heretics and fighting against German peasants. Crusaders were participants of the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns organized by Christian powers in order to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land back from Muslim control (religious wars between Christians and Muslims started primarily to secure control of holy sites).
The Crusades set the stage for several religious knightly military orders (the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, ...). These groups defended the Holy Land, fought against heretics and protected pilgrims traveling to/from the region.
<em>The bloody, violent and often ruthless conflicts propelled the status of European Christians, making them major players in the fight for land in the Middle East (eight major Crusade expeditions occurred between 1096 and 1291).</em>
